Taxi-hailing app Uber set to launch in Tel Aviv
(JNS.org) The wildly popular taxi-hailing and ride-sharing app Uber is being launched in Tel Aviv.
The app, which operates in more than 160 cities worldwide and allows private drivers to freelance as taxis, has faced blowback from regulators in several cities for undercutting traditional taxi service. Israeli government regulators have also expressed concern.
Currently, taxi drivers in Israel must undergo an eight-month course to obtain a special taxi license. In June, Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said that Uber won’t “be allowed to operate here under a different set of rules and laws than the ones applied to taxi drivers and everyone else.”
Uber has sent a letter to Katz stating its case to allow regular drivers to freelance as taxi drivers, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Besides being forced to contend with Israeli regulations, Uber will also have to compete with the popular Israeli start-up GetTaxi, a similar taxi-hailing app launched by Israeli entrepreneurs Shahar Wiaser and Roi More in 2010.
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Gaza conflict raises teens’motivation to serve in IDF
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Some 61 percent of Israelis aged 17-18 say that Operation Protective Edge has increased their motivation to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, according to a joint survey by the EduAction Forum and the Geocartography Knowledge Group.
Only 9 percent of the teens polled said the current conflict against terrorist groups in Gaza has made them less motivated for army service. Nearly half (49 percent) of those polled said they believe combat roles contribute the most to the country’s security.
Additionally, 49 percent agreed with the statement attributed to early Zionist war hero Josef Trumpeldor at Tel Hai, “It’s good to die for your country.”
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3 Hamas operatives indicted for plotting attacks against Israelis
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Three Hamas operatives arrested by security forces in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge were indicted Sunday for allegedly planning terror attacks against Israel. The three, arrested during a raid on the Palestinian village of Hozaa, were charged with multiple counts of membership in an illegal organization, firearms offenses, and conspiracy to commit murder.
The Beersheba District Court, where the case is being heard, granted the Israeli government’s motion to remand the three—Mohammed Kadra, 28, Mohammed Abu Draz, 23, and Mohammed Abu Tir, 36—for the duration of the legal proceedings against them.
The indictment stated that Kadra, Draz, and Tir participated in illegal military training and in digging tunnels under the Israel-Gaza border, with the intention of ambushing and abducting Israeli soldiers.
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Hamas ‘finance minister’ killed in Israeli airstrike
(JNS.org) An Israeli Air Force strike on Sunday killed senior Hamas official Mohammed al-Ghoul, known as the terror group’s “finance minister.”
The strike targeted the car in which Ghoul was traveling in the al-Wahda neighborhood of Gaza City. A gruesome scene unfolded after the strike as, with Ghoul’s remains still in the vehicle, several passersby attempted to put out the flames and others scurried to collect cash—dollars, euros, and Jordanian dinars—that had been inside the vehicle with Ghoul and scattered in all directions with the blast.
Ghoul oversaw Hamas’s accounts in Gaza over the last several years, and is believed to have supervised the funds used for purchasing weapons and for paying members of Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. He kept most of his subordinates in the dark about his transactions, a senior Palestinian official told Israel Hayom.
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4-year-old Israeli boy’s death prompts residents to leave kibbutz en masse
(JNS.org) The Gaza mortar attack that killed 4-year-old Israeli boy Daniel Tregerman has spurred residents of Nahal Oz, the kibbutz on which he died, to leave their homes en masse.
Nahal Oz spokeswoman Yanina Barnea said Sunday that only 80 of 360 residents of the kibbutz remain there.
“There was a brief respite, but the fighting has resumed, and we can’t let this continue,”Barnea said, according to Israel Hayom.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon met with residents of the Nahal Oz area on Saturday. He said the government would not initiate an area-wide evacuation, but that residents who leave would receive help.
Tregerman was laid to rest Sunday.
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187 Hollywood celebrities issue letter condemning Hamas terror
(JNS.org) A group of 187 celebrities—including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Mayim Bialik, Minnie Driver, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Rogen, Roseanne Barr, and Sarah Silverman—signed a letter condemning the “ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas’s charter.”
The celebrities noted that Article 7 of the Palestinian terror group’s charter states, “There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!”The letter, published Sunday as an advertisement in leading American entertainment industry magazines, also said Hamas “cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage.”
“Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons,”the celebrities said. “Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.”
The letter was initiated by the Creative Community for Peace, an organization devoted to fighting economic and artistic boycotts of Israel.
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3 Israelis hurt in mortar strike near Gaza border
(JNS.org) Three Israelis were wounded on Sunday, Aug. 24, two of them seriously, when a mortar round fired from Gaza exploded near the Erez border crossing in the Shaar Hanegev regional council.
Three rockets exploded in the Eshkol regional council and another in Sdot Negev, causing no injuries, Israel Hayom reported. Another rocket was intercepted.
Earlier Sunday, at around noon, a rocket exploded in an open area near Tel Aviv following dozens of barrages across Israel since the early morning hours. On Saturday, at least two rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, targeting a new front in the ongoing conflict. One of the rockets struck an empty home in the Western Galilee region. Two children were lightly wounded by shrapnel and 17 people were treated for shock.
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